What Would Flo Kennedy Think of “Mrs. America”?

Mary Reinholz spoke with Jacqui Ceballos about the controversial series “Mrs. America.” And although Jacqui did not watch the series, the conversation made it clear that, most unfortunately, the writer/creator of the series missed a lot of crucial points about the start of the women’s equality movement and its relationship to racial equality.

A major theme in “Mrs. America” is the divide between white and black feminists in the 1970s, a period when the movement was dominated by white middle-class women. Writer Dahvi Waller (“Mad Men”), creator of the series, told the Los Angeles Times earlier this month that she knew little of Kennedy’s role until she read the book “Florynce ‘Flo’ Kennedy: The Life of a Black Feminist Radical,” by Sherie M. Randolf.

“After reading this book, I think it’s a gross failure that Kennedy isn’t more widely recognized,” Waller told the paper. “It’s a great biography that really places her at the beginning of intersectional feminism as one of the first women to speak about the intersection of sexism and racism and the connections between Black Power and the feminist movement.”

Please note that the VFA Pioneer Histories Project includes many portaits of the African American women who helped form the foundation of the women’s movement.